The Netherlands: Day Two

Monday was a super touristy day, but I’m really not complaining.

To be honest, I LOVE being in a tour group every once in a while. I’m not a fan of being taken to all the worst tourist traps that cater to gullible Americans, but I’m a big fan of not having to stress about all the things that come with traveling solo. As long as I have a little bit of time to plan my own little excursions, being on an organized tour is great!

On our way to see all the museums

The first stop of the day, after a super awesome breakfast at the hotel was a visit to FRAME Publishers, which is a super cool publishing house that works with FRAME Magazine, Elephant Magazine, MARK magazine, and others. At the end of the presentation, FRAME gave each and every one of us our own copies of one of their publications. I am STOKED about the one I got, since it’s covered in beautiful UV coating and foil stamping. I haven’t got a chance to read it yet, but it’s probably the most beautiful magazine (it’s probably more like a book actually) that I’ve ever owned!

Frame Publisher’s two graphic designers showing us their publications

A wall full of magazines

My own issue of “Frame”

Next, we headed to the Stedelijk Museum and the Van Gogh Museum in the center of Amsterdam. The Stedelijk had a lot of nice art and interactive exhibits, with a ton of graphic design on display.

The Van Gogh museum was my favorite though…

The deal with the Van Gogh museum was that I had actually bought tickets for it in advance with some other people in my class. Since it wasn’t included in our tour, I decided that I would see it during our free time after the Stedelijk. The last time I was in Amsterdam I visited the Van Gogh, I was a kid, so I don’t really remember anything about it, so why not see it again with some AP Art History knowledge under my belt?

I later found out that DIS will reimburse me on my ticket because it has to do with art and design, making at a part of my “study tour”. I promise I’m not being paid any extra to say this or anything, but DIS is seriously taking such good care of us. They rock.

The Van Gogh Museum was a lot different than I remembered it, which I’m happy about, since I had a completely different experience. I think that they may have remodeled the museum space. It was very wide open (thank god because there were SO many people), and you learned the story of Van Gogh’s life as you ascended the floors. Other than it being way too crowded inside, the other problem with this museum was that you weren’t allowed to take pictures. I was scolded by a couple of security guards, but still managed to sneak a few illegal pics. 😉

Other than that though, the museum was amazing. So much beautiful artwork… not just Van Gogh’s, but the art that inspired him. Van Gogh wasn’t very successful at selling his artwork during his life, but I could tell that he truly had a passion for art. I couldn’t imagine how happy he would be if he was able to see this beautiful museum and all of the people from all around the world who admire his work.

One of the pieces that a guard told me not to photograph was one of a cherry blossom tree. Fortunately, the museum store actually sold phone cases of it for my little iPhone 5s! I usually never buy anything from museum stores because everything is so horribly expensive, but I just knew I wanted this case, and it wasn’t too pricey. It’s not very protective, but I love it. It matches my “Starry Night” laptop pouch that I got 2 Christmases ago.

Matchy matchy

After our museum visits, it was time for a canal tour! Before hopping on the boat, I decided to try one of Holland’s famous “stroopwafels”, which are these chewy, thin waffle cookies with caramel in them. SO good.

The canal tour was great. We were able to listen to a recorded narration on the boat with headphones, which turned out to be hilarious. The “husband and wife” narrators had lived in Amsterdam for “60” years and couldn’t tell us enough about how much they loved it here. “Ron”, the husband was a real jokester.

Between the endless stream of fun facts, I took a ridiculous amount of pictures of the beautiful canals. I truly love this city.

The last organized stop of the day was dinner at a traditional Indonesian restaurant called “Sampurna”. I didn’t really even realize until that day that The Netherlands had colonies in the “Dutch East Indies” a long time ago, so there is a significant Indonesian population in Amsterdam. It was really cool that we were able to experience that little aspect of Dutch culture.

I’d never had Indonesian food before, but I learned that night that it was delicious! We were served all kinds of yummy dishes ranging from savory skewers with chicken and beef, curries with shrimp and tofu, cucumber and carrot salads, coconut seasonings to put on rice, fried soy crisps, chicken dumplings and so much more. The dishes were similar to what you may find in other Asian countries, but the sauces were rich and flavorful in their own unique way. I really enjoyed all of them, and I’m going to make sure I go eat Indonesian food again soon.

After dinner, me and a few other people on our tour decided to explore a little bit more in the Nine Streets area. We found a cute, kitschy bar that was playing a Netherlands soccer match on the TVs. There was also a really sassy cat sitting on the bar. One of the employees told us that “he’s the owner”. I love this place.

What I’ve noticed about the Netherlands is that the population here is much more diverse than Denmark. Danes tend to dress similarly, have similar ideals and have kind but straightforward, reserved but friendly personalities. While I can usually tell the tourists apart from the Danes in Copenhagen easily, It was difficult for me to differentiate between them here. Dutch people wear all kinds of styles and express their range of personalities very openly in public. I’ve always had an American perspective of other countries before living in Copenhagen, but now I feel like I’m able to see things from a (very) slight Danish perspective.
I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to be able to travel to all of these awesome places. I’m learning so much about art, food, culture, history, the world and mostly myself. I know it isn’t permanent, and I won’t be living in Europe forever, but I know so much of what I’ve learned here will follow me back home.

 

Just being awkward next to the “iamsterdam” sign

Stay tuned for Amsterdam: Day 3! I know it’s Friday and I’m super late, but it’s coming soon… I promise 🙂
-Hana